REGISTRATION

On-site registration begins when the front desk agent extends a sincere welcome to the arriving guest.

I- The Registration Process:

There are seven steps of the registration process. They are as follows:

  1. Preregistration activities.
  2. Creating the registration record.
  3. Assigning the guestroom and room rate.
  4. Establishing the guest’s method of payment.
  5. Verifying the guest’s identity.
  6. Issuing the room key or access code.
  7. Responding to special requests.
  1. Preregistration Activities:

Preregistration activities include all the registration activities that occur before the guest arrives at the property. These activities help accelerate the registration process since preregistered guests have only to verify information already entered into a registration record and provide a valid signature. Therefore, preregistration activates go beyond a simple in advance generation of a registration record to include room and rate assignment, creation of guest folio as well as other activities.

Some front offices, however, may be reluctant to assign a specific room to a guest in advance, sine reservations may be sometimes cancelled or modified. This is aggravated even when last minute cancellations / modifications occur. Moreover, assigning a large number of vacant rooms in advance of arrival may limit the number of rooms available to guests who are not preregistered. That’s why, some hotels may limit preregistration activities to only VIP guests and groups. Yet, most hotels, nowadays prefer to preregister potential guests because it:

  • Shortens the check-in process.
  • Helps hotel find what rooms are still available for those guests who do not have a reservation.
  • Helps managers plan for the special requirements of guests as well as the hotel.

2. Creating the Registration Record:

After the guest arrives at the hotel, the front desk agent verifies a preregistration record or creates a registration record (ex. for walk-ins). The registration record is a collection of important personal and financial guest information. A typical registration record includes:

  • Guest name and surname.
  • Guest e-mail, address and telephone number.
  • Company affiliation (if applicable).
  • Expected arrival date.
  • Planned departure date or length of stay.
  • Required room rate.
  • Required room type.
  • Room number.
  • Intended method of payment.
  • Special requests.
  • Signature.

Some registration records may include a statement for the hotel responsibility for storing guest valuables. Moreover, guest signature is vital to start a binding relationship between hotel and the guest (actually, it is only when persons place their signatures on the registration record that they become guests). Guest signature implies the following:

  • Acceptance by the guest of the terms and conditions conveyed in the registration record.
  • Intention of the hotel to provide all what is conveyed in the registration record.

All information, on a registration record as important and vital for the hotel as well as for the guest. The following diagram tries to summarize the flow of registration information:

3. Assigning the Guestroom and Room Rate:

The hotel shall identify and allocate an available room from a specific required room category (i.e. type & rate). If the guest’s request is ambiguous or when a guestroom is unavailable, a front desk agent may query the front office system to locate an acceptable available room. As part of the preregistration process, hotels may pre-assign specific room and rates by carefully looking at forecasted availability status and how appropriately the room matches guest’s needs. In all cases, guestroom assignments shall be finalized during the registration process.

As rooms in the same room category are commonly priced differently depending on room size, quality of furnishings, location, amenities, and other factors, front office staff shall be knowledgeable and aware of those differences while pre-assigning rooms (shall try to maximize hotel’s room revenue by being sales minded). Moreover, front office staff shall also consider future reservation commitments.

a) Room status: Room status information is usually discussed from two dimensions:

  • Short term: Determines rooms’ readiness for the night. This is referred to as housekeeping status.
  • Long term: Determines rooms’ readiness beyond the present night. It is referred to as reservation status.

Typical housekeeping status alternatives include:

  • Occupied: Room has a registered guest or guests assigned to it.
  • Vacant: The room is currently unoccupied.
  • On-Change: The room is currently being cleaned for the next guest.
  • Out-of-Order: The room has a condition that does not allow it to be rented.

The housekeeping department’s prompt relay of latest room status to the front office department is very critical especially for early arrivals. At most properties, the front desk is not authorized to assign a guestroom until the room has been cleaned, inspected and released by the housekeeping department even though early arriving guest might have to wait for the room to be readied. Therefore, coordination between housekeeping department from one part and the front office department from the other, concerning room status update is indispensable.

b) Room status discrepancies: Such an undesirable situation can occur for several reasons. Some of those reasons are as follows:

  • Incomplete / inaccurate recordkeeping.
  • Skippers.

In many hotels, property management system generates a daily front office report called the occupancy report. The latter lists rooms occupied for the current night as well as guests expected to check out the next day. The executive housekeeper receives daily a copy of this report and use it as to prepare housekeeping staff scheduling report (in order to schedule its room maids / inspectors for the following day).

At the end of the work shift, the housekeeping department prepares a housekeeping room status report, based on the physical check of all guestrooms. This very report shall be compared with front desk occupancy reports for possible room status discrepancies. If discrepancies are detected, related rooms have to be communicated to the front office manager so that necessary additional control (if needed) is conducted and eventual room discrepancies are eliminated. This ensures that front office desks work with accurate and timely room availability information.

Lastly, most front office systems define room status in a detailed way (other than simply occupied / on-change). Some detailed front office room statuses are as follows:

  • V/O: Vacant and on-change.
  • V/C: Vacant and cleaned, but not yet inspected.
  • V/I: Vacant and inspected.
  • O/C: Occupied and cleaned.

c) Room rates: A room rate determines the price a hotel charges for overnight accommodation. While pricing rooms, the hotel shall keep in mind that rate should be between a minimum referred to as the hurdle rate (determined by cost structure) and a maximum referred to as the rack rate (determined by competition structure) boundaries as depicted here:

Minimum (Hurdle Rate) < Room Rate < Maximum (Rack Rate)

Cost Structure < Room Rate < Competition Structure

Front office department shall finalize room rates with guests during the registration process. Moreover, rack rates shall only be applicable for walk-ins especially during the high season. Lastly, room rates might be affected by:

  • Seasonality.
  • Variations in the number of guests assigned to rooms.
  • Service level.
  • Room location.
  • Room view.
  • Room amenities.
  • Type of Guest and / or usage (ex. commercial, corporate, complimentary, group, family, day, package-plan, and frequent traveler rates).

c) Room locations: Front desk agents must be aware of the characteristics of each room type as well as the specific characteristics of each room in the same room type. Therefore, front desk agents shall be familiar with various guestroom configurations, as well as the hotel’s floor plan, in order to satisfy guest room requests.

d) Reservation blocks: Usually reservation agents or the front office supervisor blocks reserved rooms through an automated reservation file. If, for any reason, reserved rooms are incorrectly blocked or mistakably managed, room assignment conflicts may result.

4. Establishing the Guest’s Method of Payment:

Regardless of the method of payment chosen, hotels shall take precautionary measures to ensure payment for goods and services rendered. Guests, at the registration stage, shall communicate or confirm their intended method of payment. Some of the common methods of payments accepted by hotels are cash, personal checks, payment cards and direct billing.

a) Cash: Some guests prefer to pay guestroom charges during registration, in advance of occupancy, using cash. These guests are referred to as paid-in-advance (PIA) guests. For such guests, they are included in PIA lists. Revenue centers have access to those very lists of guests not authorized to have charge purchases. Moreover, PIA lists are created automatically by front office systems that interface guest electronic folio file to the hotel’s revenue outlets. Sometimes, paying immediately might not suit some guests (even though intending to settle their accounts by cash), that's why hotels might give guest charge privileges, at the condition they provide an imprint of a payment card. Lastly, while handling cash payments, all cashiers shall be aware of counter-feats and short cash change situations and that there are many cash-equivalent tools that are legally accepted as cash payment such as cashier checks, traveler checks, and money orders.

b) Personal checks: Nowadays, very few hotels still accept personal checks as a method of payment due to the high probability of fraud associated with this method (bad check). In fact, in order to accept personal checks, most hotels necessitates that these very checks be supported by a credit card with a check-cashing guarantee, that the amount to be cashed against checks shall be within the hotel’s established limit, and preferably accept personal checks only during standard business hours where banks are open. If personal checks are to be accepted, front office personnel shall record the Guest ID card / driving license certificate along with the guest’s address and telephone number and e-mail address on the back of the check. Lastly, hotels try to protect themselves against fraudulent personal checks by following these basic guidelines:

  • Do not refund check if the original transaction was settled by personal check.
  • Accept personal checks written only on the current day.
  • Require that personal checks, written to settle an account, be made payable to the hotel, not to “cash”.
  • Do not accept checks written on foreign banks unless the hotel’s credit department has pre-approved acceptance of these types of checks.

c) Payment cards: There are two forms of (debit / credit) cards that can be used for payment of guest charges:

  • Contact cards having magnetic stripe being swiped for account access.
  • Contactless cards having wireless transmission of account exchange.

Front office clerks should check the following items before accepting any payment card as a method of payment:

  • Expiration date and location validation: Front desk agents are required not to accept an expired credit card. Moreover, they must be careful when dealing with international travelers, as they may present payment cards that are clearly marked as being valid only in specific countries.
  • Invalid credit card: Front desk staff should follow established front office and card-payment-company procedures when a card appears to be invalid (ex. damaged / modified credit card, or signature on the card does not match the signature on hotel’s registration record).
  • Imprinting the voucher: If hotels do not possess payment card verification systems, then front desk agents may need to imprint approved, valid cards onto approved payment card vouchers. The imprinted card voucher can be attached to the guest’s printed folio, or placed in a voucher file for safekeeping. Usually, the guest is not asked to sign the voucher until final account settlement at check out.
  • Floor limits: Payment card companies may assign hotels a floor limit (i.e. a maximum amount in payment card charges the hotel can accept without requesting special authorization on behalf of the cardholder). An automated front office system that monitors guest account balances can identify guest accounts approaching the floor limit (high balance / high risk accounts) and, hence, block additional charge privileges honored to that guest.
  • Reserving a credit: The front office may reserve a specified amount of pre-authorized credit in a guest’s payment card account to ensure payment for goods and services. To avoid a potential payment card authorization problem, the front office may want to reserve a credit line of at least an amount equal to the anticipated charges to be incurred on the guest’s folio.
  • Denying a credit request: Front desk agents must be diplomatic. Their tone or voice shall remain friendly no matter how furious the guest becomes. Moreover, when denying a credit request, front desk agents shall request either another credit card or another valid method of payment.

d) Direct billing “bill to”: Some guests (especially VIP) do not prefer to wait at checkout queues like other guests before departure. They, rather, prefer, only to sign their guest folios, go to their homes, and later receive a certain invoice detailing their charges, pertinent to their journeys, to be settled by payment to hotel bank accounts. In order to satisfy the needs of this category of guests, hotels created the direct billing process. In order to qualify for a direct billing privilege, guests shall at pre-arrival stage or maximum at the arrival stage fill a hotel credit application form along with the provision of an imprint of a valid payment card. This very form is sent to the front office manager, or rooms division manager for approval. If not approved, guests are requested to pay with any of the other methods of payments. Therefore, under direct billing arrangement, the hotel itself, not a payment card company or other agency, assumes full responsibility for account collection.

e) Special promotions: During registration, guests may present vouchers, coupons, gift certificates, gift cards, or special incentive awards received from businesses, airline companies, or other authorized agencies. These are referred to as special promotions.

f) Payment issues for groups: Front office staff must be careful when registering group guests and establishing the method of payment since group members coming to the hotel to attend a meeting or convention often have individual billing arrangements pre-established.

5. Verifying the Guest’s Identity:

It is very common for front desk agents to ask for photo identification in the form of a birth certificate, driver’s license or passport to ensure positive identification of the guest’s name, address, signature, and photograph. Later, the type of identification and identification number shall be entered to the guest’s registration record.

6. Issuing the Room Key or Access Code:

By issuing of room keys, the rooming process gets to an end. For security reasons, room keys must be carefully controlled. That’s why, hotels should have written policies governing guestroom key control. Such procedures shall clearly state:

  • Who is authorized to issue guestroom keys?
  • Who receives such keys?
  • Where and how guestroom keys are created / stored at the front desk?

Moreover, to protect / ensure guest safety and privacy, front desk agents shall only hand-in the room key to the guest without announcing and/or spelling out the room number. Many hotels provide guestroom keys in envelopes, which gives front desk agents a convenient place to write the room number for guests. Lastly, front desk agent shall ask guest whether he/she needs bellboy assistance or not and coordinate with uniform service department accordingly.

  1. Responding to Special Requests:

The Front Office department shall watch for any guest special requests and try promptly to satisfy them. This way, a good and professional relationship with the guests will be created. Moreover, hotel increases its chances to receive these very guests another time in the future (i.e. create repeat guests).

Guests' requests are usually grouped under the following categories:

  • Room type.
  • Bed type.
  • Location.
  • View.
  • Smoking / non-smoking status.
  • Amenities.
  • Special furnishings for disabled guests.
  • High-speed Internet access.
  • Entertainment systems (ex. on-demand video systems, video game systems…).

II- Creative Registration Options:

To make registration more efficient and effective as well as to shock positively the guest and, hence, contribute to guest delight, hotels can opt for creative registration techniques such as:

  • Eliminating the front desk structure: A host waits in a reception area with a list of expected arriving guests and their pre-assigned guestrooms. The host identifies guests, completes an abbreviated registration process, and sometimes escorts guests to their rooms.
  • Registering group guests at a special location: Front desk agents may use a separate area from the front desk to manage guest services as well as to provide check-in / check-out services for groups at peak times.
  • Creating a unique & separate registration area for VIP guests: Similar to having a hotel greeter yet applicable only to VIPs.
  • Combining hotel registration and meeting registration in a separate area for group members: In here, separating group guests from other guests enables front office to offer specialized services to the group.
  • Registering guests off-site: This creative option allows guests to register prior to arrival at the front desk in airports, convention centers and shuttle vans.
  1. Self –Registration:

This registration option is becoming popular nowadays. In this alternative, guests check-in from a self-registration terminal that might be located on or off hotel grounds or even made available via a mobile device or property website. Such a registration option reduces not only guest registration time but also labor cost. Moreover, self-registration terminals may be designed as to generate guestroom electronic keys using an interface with an electronic guestroom lock system.